A wide variety of electrical connectors have been designed for terminating flat circuits, such as flat flexible cables, flexible printed circuits or the like. A typical connector for flat circuits includes a dielectric housing molded of plastic material, for instance. The housing has an elongated slot for receiving an end of the flat circuit which has been stripped to expose generally parallel, laterally spaced conductors. A plurality of terminals are mounted in the housing and are spaced laterally along the slot for engaging the laterally spaced conductors of the flat circuit. An actuator often is movably mounted on the housing for movement between a first position whereat the flat circuit is freely insertable into the slot and a second position whereat the actuator clamps the circuit in the housing and biases the circuit against the terminals.
One of the problems which has developed with flat circuit connectors of the character described above is that the connectors have become extremely miniaturized and difficult to manipulate and/or operate. The overall length of such a connector may not be greater than the width of an operator's finger nail. Consequently, attempts have been made to provide means for holding the actuator in its first or open position to allow insertion of the flat circuit into the connector.
For instance, FIG. 3 shows a fragmented view of a prior art connector housing 51 and an actuator 52 that is rotatable relative to the housing in the direction of arrow 53 from a first or open position shown in FIG. 3 to a second or terminating position (not shown). The actuator is held in its open position by an edge 52a of the actuator being captured by a vertical slot 54 in the housing. When the actuator is rotated to its terminating position, edge 52a of the actuator moves into a horizontal slot 55. This vertical-and horizontal slot arrangement becomes worn during use, losing the capability of holding the actuator in its open position. In addition, it requires considerable forces to move the actuator from vertical slot 54 to horizontal slot 55. If attempts are made to reduce the depths of the slots in order to reduce these forces, the actuator often moves out of its intended position due to vibrations or other extraneous forces.
The present invention is directed to solving one or more of the various problems discussed above.